Paris – He France open Isn’t it the only sporting event in Europe attracting the attention of tennis players? The Champions League final It will decide the best soccer club on the continent, and one of the two teams involved on Saturday night is Paris Saint-Germain, whose stadium is a couple of blocks from Roland-Garros.
Count Novak Djokovic Among those who support the PSG against Inter from Italy in Milan, and hoped to tune the television to watch the great clash that will be carried out in Munich, Germany. Then Djokovic made that preference known for the people in charge of organizing the program on the clay court Grand Slam Tournament has won three times – A common practice, especially among the sport elite.
They often ask to be programmed at a certain time. Or to avoid some time.
“I will definitely see it if I am not playing (in the) night session. Yes, that will be good,” Djokovic said with a big smile. “Fyi, Roland-Garros schedule.”
Suggestion, track. Except that his plea was not heard: when the game order was launched on Saturday, 24 times older champion The Third Round Part of Djokovic against Filip Misólico It was the one that was chosen below the lights in the Philippe-Chaatrier court due to starting at 8:15 pm local time, 45 minutes before Inter Milan begins in front of PSG.
Others who asked him to compete at that time obtained his desire. Although one, Arthur Fils, the 14th Frenchman who grew up near Paris and is a big PSG fan, ended up leaving the tournament due to a back injury after being placed in a afternoon match against No. 17 Andrey Rublev.
“We have many requests from the players” every day, Director of the Amélie Mauresm tournament saying. “There is no fixed rule. We try to accommodate everyone as much as possible. That includes requests from players, emitters and spectators … It is a real puzzle, I will not lie.”
Gotera of coconut He said that he often does not ask for a certain job, but when he does, he is generally related to competing in singles and doubles the same day (the American won the France Open Double Title Last year, but he is not playing doubles this time).
He 2023 US Open Champion.Who is currently number 2 in singles, has noticed that events tend to listen more to elite players than others.
“If you are classified a little higher, they will hear more from your contribution, sure,” Gasff said. “To be honest, I think it’s legitimately deserved. I feel that if you are doing well on the tour, you want so many tournaments, you should have a little more priority when it comes to that.”
Except that even the best of the best does not always succeed with this kind of thing.
Madison Keys, who was the Us Open runner -up in 2017 and He won the Australian Open In January, he knows what it is to be ignored.
“Sometimes the application goes (inside), they write it and say: ‘ok'”, but then do nothing about it, Keys said.
“I really think it’s a bit to what the tournament wants, what television wants, things like that,” he added. “Sometimes you get what you ask. And other times, you get the opposite.”
Ask Djokovic.
“Whatever they schedule me, I have to accept,” he said earlier this season. “I think I got my right to … (communicate) with the management of the tournament, where I can express what I would like, depending on a certain day, depending on the opponent.”
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The Associated Press writer, Tom Nouvian, contributed to this report.
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP tennis writer since 2002. He finds his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tenis
